Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Last week, to celebrate CHG’s first blogiversary, I asked readers what subjects they’d like to see tackled more often. Quite a few responded with along the same lines: inexpensive, healthy dishes made with stuff usually found lying around the house.

With this mission in mind, I immediately thought of my own pantry, a three-shelf, 10” deep cabinet currently shared by four people. Due to these space restrictions, I have to be judicious about my supplies, keeping only the most consistently useful on hand. Beyond the usual baking products, they are (in charming alphabetical order):

Armed with a reasonable variety these ten basic ingredients, I can generally whip up a nice selection of main course, side dish, or snacky-time snack-type dealies. Bargains by nature, the food can be kept relatively healthy, too, if close attention is paid to the olive oil.

With this in mind, behold: cut-and-pasted below are 20 dishes made entirely from the aforementioned pantry staples. As always, there are some things to note:

1) I’ve only tried the Roasted Chickpeas and Sara Moulton’s dish, but nearly everything is either highly rated by site reviewers or given the Food Blogger Seal of Approval (meaning a respected culinary web writer’s tried it and liked it enough to post about it).

2) Nutritional calculations are from the original sites or my own math. (Some dishes couldn't be quantified because there were no serving sizes listed.) Please e-mail me if you see mistakes (cheaphealthygood@gmail.com).

3) Substitutions (canned tomatoes instead of fresh, etc.) are given in a number of dishes where it wouldn't affect the taste too much (i.e. they’re not a main ingredient). I know fresh foods will almost always be more flavorsome than canned/dried, but sometimes they can be switched without crazy damage.

Bonus: after the initial 20 dishes, there are nine more that only require one or two extra ingredients. If you have ‘em on hand, give ‘em a shot.

EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS DISHESThough they require one or two more inexpensive ingredients, these dishes can be just as healthy, fast, and easy as the pure pantry meals listed above. The additional ingredient is listed after each name.

Serious Eats: Swiss Chard with Tomatoes and ChickpeasNeeds Swiss chard. Also, lots of leafy greens can be sauteed with olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes for a quick and nutritious bargain meal. This is just one suggestion.276 calories and 13.1 g fat per serving

One of my favorites is a spinach/artichoke pasta w/ dried chili pepper flakes. All it needs is pasta, jarred or canned artichoke hearts, and spices from the pantry and a box of spinach from the freezer.

wow! I have a small room my husband hung some shelves on, but I like yours! Can you tell me the size of your pantry. Did you just buy the closet organizers from a place like Home Depot? Thanks for sharing. I do have some easy and frugal recipes on my site, too, if you would like to take a look, Shepherd pie, monkey bread, ect... www.jobesfamilynews.spaces.live.com thank you again....Nancy

There's a great dish called Mujudarrah (I think) that is lentils, brown rice, and caramelized onions. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone has a fabulous recipe, but I think allrecipes also has one (sorry I'm not taking the trouble to look it up). You cook the lentils and rice together and caramelize the onions in a separate skillet. I don't know why, but the combination is magic!